How to Outperform in Investment Banking?

When you start you'll figure it out quickly. Not making any errors as a junior guy is a lot easier said than done. All the subjective advice will make a lot more sense when you're actually working. Most goals in IB are day-to-day type deals: Finish this edit, build this model, bind these pitchbooks, whatever.

Leveraged Sell-Out We start the score at 100 and then subtract and add points as appropriate. Essentially, if had you had said nothing, you would have scored 100%.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE By LINDSAY EDELSTEIN THE INVESTMENT BANKER

Andrew, 24 Salary estimate: $190,000, including projected bonus (-2 for not lying) Job: We help companies raise capital and grow their business. (+5 for lying and making Banking sound semi-cool!)

CLOTHES Suit: Hickey Freeman suit, $2,749 (+1 for overpaying). “I have about 10 suits and usually buy them at Hickey Freeman and Paul Stuart (+1). I have two really heavy pin-stripe suits that I’d classify as ‘power suits.’ Bankers never wear double-breasted suits, it’s a fashion faux pas (+1 for French). I get all of my suits tailored in Rochester, N.Y (-2 for going somewhere north of 86th street that’s not The Hamptons). There is a Romanian couple that have been doing my father’s suits for years. They are trusted in the family, and 10 times better than any of the tailors I’ve used in the city.” (We know that family: Ionescu. All the legit tailors in that lineage are still in Romania. -5 for not flying them over personally.)

White shirt: “There’s a saying in the banking world that you can never have too many blue suits or white shirts (-2, they also said this at IBM circa 1965). I get mine from Hickey Freeman [$149-$249] as my standby, but I also shop at Charles Tyrwhitt [$99-$200] (+0, Fine brand, but we have a feeling you shop at their Madison Avenue store, which is across the street from Men’s Warehouse), Thomas Pink [$149-$249] (+1) and Turnbull and Asser [over $250] (+1). I get my white shirts heavy-starched (+1).”

Collar: “I always buy cutaway collars (+1) and French cuffs (+1) from the British stores (Tyrwhitt, Pink, Turnbull & Asser), and Barrel (button) cuffs from Hickey Freeman.”

Watch: Breitling Navitimer, $5,299 (+3). “Bankers have a complex with having a watch. Far and beyond the most popular watch is a Rolex Submariner (+1)- black or white face, half bezel is blue. The Navitimer comes in a few different sizes and shapes.” Nice work on this section!

Shoes: Ferragamo loafers, $395 at Saks Fifth Avenue. “The standard banker shoe is a fashion loafer or a tie cap toe.” (-5 for not shopping at Bergdorf.)

Tie: Hickey Freeman (again with the Hickey?) tie, $125. “The two tie brands that embody the investment banker are Hermes (+1) and Salvatore Ferragamo (+1). I don’t wear a lot of Ferragamo because they tie small knots and are usually pastel – I like thicker knots (+1) and cutaway collars (+0, whoops, already got this one). Every now and then I’ll pick up some pastels from Brooks Brothers (-8, [shudder]). I’ve bought one or two Ferragamo ties from the outlet (-4 because we don’t understand what that last word means). But I buy most of my ties from Hickey Freeman (-5 for acting like you’re sponsored by them). They retail anywhere from $98-$130.”

Brands missed (-1 for each, -1 for lack of inventiveness making us think about off-the-rack clothes): Armani, Gucci, Eton, Hilditch & Key, Brioni, Kiton, Canali, Versace

TOOLS PDA: A BlackBerry 8700c (-2, one for every year old this phone is. Get an 8800 or at least a Pearl, kid!), it’s gray with black trim. “I bought mine at the Cingular store in Midtown. (we are going to be nice and neglect this comment) At first, people are apprehensive and they think it’s a virtual leash. Now I can’t imagine life without it. (+5 for never being out of pocket!)

Red pen: “I keep a pen behind my ear at all times. I never used red pens before, now I always do – it stands out.” (We’re not really big on the whole ‘analog’ thing. How could you forget MS Excel as a tool? -8.)

GROOMING Shoe-shining: “I like to shine my own shoes. You can get a shine kit at any shoe retailer with brush, polish and cloth. But in an emergency, there are shoe-shiners walking around on our floor offering to shine our shoes [$5].” (-3 for not actively supporting Taylorism and division of labor).

TASTES Cigars: “My favorite cigar is a CAO Brazilia (+2, no MX2, though?), with Partagas Black Label (+1) coming in close behind. I buy most of my cigars at JR Cigar on 46th and Fifth. Sometimes I will buy from Barclay Rex on Lexington Avenue, and sometimes I order them by the box on Thompson Cigar online. I’ve been smoking cigars for four years now, it’s even on my résumé (+3, good form). Liking cigars is a good talking point (talk to the -2).” (Fyi, at TPG we only smoke individually muled cigars from Cuba, rolled by no one over the age of 7.)

Red Bull: “Every two weeks I buy a 12-pack of sugar-free (-3) Red Bull. I have one before I get in the shower, and then I drink one on the way to work. I don’t really drink coffee because it’s a slow process. Redbull is portable and it gets you ready to embrace the day.” (+7 for “willing to do what it takes”-ness, -3 for shoddy arithmetic).

Blanton’s: “The only alcohol I drink is Blanton’s whiskey (+.5), Woodford Reserve (a small-batch bourbon) (+.5) and Glenlivet 15-year (a single-malt scotch) (They make scotches aged fewer than 18 years?! -10 for knowing that.). There’s a good liquor place on 86th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam that I go to every now and then.”

Bar: “The bad side of the long hours. After six months, I noticed people started calling me less and less (+25 for being able to “give us your all”). Some of my friends and I go to Milk & Honey (-3 for being behind the game). It’s really small and there are rules. Men can’t approach women, you have to make reservations and they chip the ice into your drink. At the other end of the spectrum is Yogi’s. They have $7 pitchers of Bud Ice. ’nuff said.” (-2 for not helping out The Patriot, +1 cause Yogi’s is owned by the same guy).

Thanks again for your application. I’m actually only in HR here at TPG, so this is just a first pass, and I’m sure I may have missed some stuff (the folks here seem to agree with us and might have provided additional input). We do understand you may have had limited time while answering these questions and that reporters tend to take things out of context, so we tried to take that into consideration. But you’re a bit of a media extravaganza now, so I’m sure you’ll understand that our hands are tied.

Best of luck, Corinne Lee Texas-Pacific Group

Great article from LSO.

Basically at the beginning you simply need: 1. Follow directions 2. Don't complain 3. Don't make errors 4. Slowly add value by knowing what kind of slides the md wants

That's the basic start.

Just suck up to the team head and push back on all work and you will be fine

What you will be measured against is where you start. No one will expect you to come in knowing how to do everything (that being said if you don't have a finance/accounting major or background then please pay attention during your week of training so you at least know some of the lingo).

Work hard: When someone asks you to jump, ask how high. Seems stupid but trust me this is what they want. Ask questions: To continue with the analogy, if someone asks you to jump and you don't know how, immediately go to the 1st year analyst on the deal team (or one who you know the name of and who sits nearby) and ask them to teach you how to jump. You get to have someone teach you how to jump exactly once, so take your time with them and have them explain it to you as slowly as you need. They'd rather spend 10 minutes with you once, than 7 minutes with you the first time and another 5 minutes the second time. Don't mess up, but if you do, admit it quickly and fix it faster: Print your work out before you turn it in. Nothing you'll be doing is going to be very intellectually challenging. Frankly, unless you're an all-star you probably won't be making any models at all, and certainly not without supervision from someone older than you. So do your work perfectly, then print it and read it through to make sure it's perfect, then hand it in. If you realize you messed something up, or if someone calls you out on it, apologize once but apologize loudly (don't try to couch it with excuses). Then (and this is the most important part) fix it. If you messed it up, then you can fix it - and do it quickly. Facetime: Guess this one depends on the office. In my experience the safest thing to do is never leave before the 1st year analysts. If you have finished ALL of your work (and trust me, you will always have more work you could be doing), AND it is past midnight, then go up to whatever 1st year analysts remain in your group and ask them what they are working on and if you can help out in any way. Chances are really good that it would take more time to bring you up to speed on what they are doing than it would for them to just finish the work and get out of there, so you'll probably be in the clear. But they will remember that you were the kid who was there late and always offered to help, and they'll appreciate that.

To add on to what's above:

Fucking up: Generally speaking you should never majorly fuck up, but if you do don't let it kill you. I had an embarrassing situation where I mis-spelled not only my Associate's name but also my ED's name on an email. THANK GOD it was an internal email and not to a client (not that I'd ever email a client directly as a SA, ha!). Anyway, it was really embarrassing and I thought I had fucked my chances of getting a return offer. Push on, don't let anything get you down. Everyone is human, and while they definitely have near superhuman expectations of SAs in terms of sleep deprivation, they do realize that everyone makes mistakes from time to time and honestly they probably laugh about it. Keep your head up and always be positive, it'll make them like you too.

Thanks everyone for the response, and thanks for the thorough tips White Lion, SB'ed. So from what I gathered, there aren't any tangible performance metrics, but push through with strong work ethics and everything will come to fruition.

White Lion is spot on, from my experience.

1) Don't ask stupid questions (definition: a stupid question is any question that can be solved within 5 minutes via Google) 2) Act like an adult (don't talk about drinking/sleeping with women 24/7) 3) Don't be self-centered (talk less, listen more) 4) Learn how to use Google (have a question? Google it. Looking for something? Google it) 5) Sign-up for client-related alerts and fwd them to directors on that account 6) Create simple, beautiful, and flexible models that are easy to audit regardless of how complex your situation (don't hardcode numbers, stick to the same formatting, make sure models are easy to follow, DO NOT overuse colors / border styles, use proper coloring standards, make sure all numbers are nicely formatted) 7) If you are done with your work early and no one needs help, then either read up on valuations/banking/your industry or study older financial models 8) Don't complain too much about anything 9) Always grab a lunch/dinner/drinks with superiors when invited, at least in the first few months 10) Learn how to be fast with deliverables 11) Study INDIRECT, VLOOKUP, OFFSET, data tables, self-reference, INDIRECT + VLOOKUP, SUMPRODUCT with conditions 12) Don't be awkward 13) Don't look messy

outperformance occurs between the hours of 6pm on Friday and 8am on Monday

Thanks for the great tips Phantom,

Kanga, is this for reals? So working extra hours?

Unfamiliar with INDIRECT and OFFSET. Can anyone give me a gentleman's explanation?